Modeling the Progression of Women in STEM Fields

Creating a mathematical model to predict participation in STEM fields would allow social scientists to quantitatively examine their theories, as well as provide a multitude of simulated populations to explore. Furthermore, these models can be used to predict the result of interactions between populations. One model that simulates the progression of women through male-dominated academic fields explores the idea of homophily between women as the driving force for their advancement. We propose an alternate model that simulates the progression of women in these male-dominated fields as a predator-prey type system. We believe that such a model more effectively describes the population dynamics.